...and the quiver enables you to carry your 6 arrows of slay undead (+5, +6) along with your 11 arrows of slay undead (+6, +8) and your 13 arrows of slay undead (+9, +4) in a single slot, instead of requiring three.

Yes, that part is nice as otherwise you just dropped all of those as it was not worth carrying them for a fight. Early game though, damage is down, and a lot of rods, staves, etc. can be useful until you get the uber ones later on. Especially if you are moving fast as then basically anything is useful so removing five slots isn't trivial.

Re - bow damage, that would be why Smeagol ignored 20 arrows. I was wondering why his HP had suddenly jumped to an extreme level.

In V I find a 40 item per slot quiver about right, assuming that even a ranger should not be using arrows against weaker monsters.

In current V4, if I read the source correctly, base damage isn't too bad, but it increases much slower with improving equipment than other damage dealing methods. Please correct me if I am wrong, but I think the current formula is:
Missile damage from dice-roll x (launcher multiplier + Prowess multiplier + Brand/Slay multiplier)
I'm not sure where the Prowess multiplier comes from, but I suspect just from launcher and ammo.

If this is correct it makes high dice ammo essential to get decent overall damage.

In V I find a 40 item per slot quiver about right, assuming that even a ranger should not be using arrows against weaker monsters.

In current V4, if I read the source correctly, base damage isn't too bad, but it increases much slower with improving equipment than other damage dealing methods. Please correct me if I am wrong, but I think the current formula is:
Missile damage from dice-roll x (launcher multiplier + Prowess multiplier + Brand/Slay multiplier)
I'm not sure where the Prowess multiplier comes from, but I suspect just from launcher and ammo.

If this is correct it makes high dice ammo essential to get decent overall damage.

Regards,
Jonathan

EDIT: Ooops, just seen a new thread on this. Ignore what's below!

It's not going to stay like this though. The launcher mult will be replaced by the heft of the launcher (== draw), so the ammo will need rescaling by a factor of about four.

What we're not sure about yet is whether we'll need a separate concept of "missile prowess" for the amount of damage done with archery. (It's pretty clear that missile finesse is a separate skill from melee finesse - and the code already has these skills separated.)

I think we probably favour simplicity over marginal added realism, so we could stick with one prowess score in the first instance. If you're strong your blows will hit harder, and your arrows will fly faster.

Note that the functions of fin + prow are reversed for crossbows: prowess determines how many shots you get (because it's how fast you can wind the launcher), and finesse determines how much damage you do (because it's all about where the bolt hits). We could in fact ignore this latter effect entirely and have crossbows as flat-damage weapons unaffected by skills.

Anyway, archery is still in need of quite a bit of work, so please don't get too focused on the current mechanics.

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"3.4 is much better than 3.1, 3.2 or 3.3. It still is easier than 3.0.9, but it is more convenient to play without being ridiculously easy, so it is my new favorite of the versions." - Timo Pietila